BREST, 30 November (BelTA) – Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the local level should be inextricably linked to priorities of the regions. Shelley Inglis, head of the UN consulting and expert mission for evaluating progress in implementing SDGs, governance and peacebuilding coordinator at the UNDP Regional Hub in Istanbul, made the relevant statement in Brest on 30 November, BelTA has learned.
Experts of the MAPS (Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support) mission met with representatives of the regional group on sustainable development at premises of the Brest Oblast Executive Committee on 30 November. Shelley Inglis noted it was the team's first visit to the regions. “If you work only with national aggregate figures, they often obscure the differences that may exist in the society. SDGs represent a set of tasks. Every city, every region, and every country has its own distinguishing traits — growth motivators, problems, and challenges. All the efforts to implement Sustainable Development Goals should be inextricably linked to local peculiarities and priorities of the regions,” the expert believes.
Shelley Inglis said that Brest Oblast pays a lot of attention to innovation-driven development, environmental protection, the development of environmental tourism and farm tourism, the creation of green jobs. “There are a lot of initiatives and ideas here. We will work out additional recommendations on getting the local population involved in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is very important to make the most vulnerable population strata part of the process so that they could shape their future with their own hands,” stressed the MAPS mission leader.
Mikhail Batsenko, Chairman of the Economy Committee of the Brest Oblast Executive Committee, noted that the region had already taken certain steps to implement the SDGs at the local level. First of all, a strategy on Brest Oblast's sustainable development till 2025 has been worked out. Apart from that, eight projects have been implemented or are being implemented in the region with assistance of the UNDP. Their total budget is close to $7 million. Key avenues of project activities also match the sustainable development concept. Those are environment (sustainable management of peatlands, biomass production, stable energy, waste recycling), economy (development of environmental tourism, production of alternative fuel), healthcare, education, and the sustainable development of the city and the society.
Mikhail Batsenko said: “We have started implementing a project for enabling sustainable urban development using the Swedish smart city SymbioCity as an example to follow. This concept focuses on creating the so-called environmental maps. In Brest the city's millennium park is in focus. There are plans to make the park a center of gravity for the citizens by building cycling routes, transport routes, social and public communications between the park and the city's center. The first few steps have been made already: the architectural layout of the park has been created. The Brest city administration and residents of the nearby streets have planted over 1,200 various trees. The SymbioCity concept will allow integrating the park into the urban environment in 2019.”
During the visit the MAPS mission experts also met with partners within the framework of the projects various UN agencies are implementing in Brest Oblast.
